downstairs to check on him.
“Dad?”
Her bare feet slapped on the wooden floorboards as she hurried. She reached the living room and the sight hit her. Death and blood, shock and horror… Her father was lying in the position she left him in but his nicotine stained vest was now running with a cascade of blood that sprung from an open wound in his head. Anna immediately gagged and clutched a hand to her mouth. The blood ran a river from his body to hers and seeped in between her toes. Total fear racked her body for a moment until the reality of the
situation hit her… he would never hurt her again! But who hurt him?
As if her
thoughts were mysteriously read a floorboard creaked behind her and she spun round in the dark to see a figure so tall it towered over her. The demonic shadow loomed in closer and Anna began to shake.
Then a hand as strong as a vice spun her back around. Her arms were violently and expertly pulled behind her back.
CHAPTER 2
She screamed an animalistic cry for help but was soon silenced by the cold steel of a gun against her temple. Anna assumed death would come in a second and she began to pray but it never arrived. The murderer in her house appeared to be hesitating or was he just playing with her, trying to make her last few seconds on earth as terrifying as possible? She felt his hot breath on the back off her neck and the clean smell of his aftershave. She wanted to see his face and put a name to her father’s killer but the tight grip on her never wavered.
Meanwhile the killer was looking at her intently. She’s a pretty one, he thought. Real pretty... He looked over every inch of her body as he held the gun to her head. She was shaking in her underwear. He could smell the fear coming off her. Wondering what to do with her, he looked her up and down again. He killed the men easily. That was what he was paid to do. But the women? He never got involved with them, but this time he had no choice. She was a witness after all wasn’t she? But she didn’t see his face. Still… she’d complicate things. She’d have to die too.
But something was stopping him pulling the trigger. He’d never killed a girl before, and he found himself not being able to even contemplate it. But his boss specified, ordered even, to kill everyone and that meant the girl too. He looked her over once again and saw the fragility of her body, the coyness in her face and the sheer terror in her eyes. He couldn’t do it, instead he felt the deep compulsion to wrap his arms around her and tell her he’d save her. It was an odd thought to have considering he had just put a bullet hole in her father. He hesitated for a moment longer and then an idea flashed in his head.
“Come with me,” he spoke gruffly and let her arms go. “But don’t say a word or I’ll kill you.”
The killer walked briskly and silently through the house and, noticing one of Anna’s coats hanging in the hallway, tossed it to her.
“Wrap up warm, there’s no heat where we’re going,” he said rather enigmatically.
What the hell does that mean! A thousand thoughts a second were flying through Anna’s mind. Why didn’t he kill me? What’s he going to do instead? She was too scared to resist, and so dutifully followed him out of the house and onto the street. A black SUV stood proudly amongst the battered, second hand cars of the neighbours. She looked to see where her father’s van was and was surprised to see it wasn’t in its usual parking space.
“Hurry,” the killer whispered through the frosty darkness. “In the car…” he pulled open the passenger door. “Come on… get in quickly,”
Anna’s freezing bare feet ran quickly on the cold tarmac as she hurried to the vehicle. She jumped in the passenger side and he slammed the door behind her. As he moved round and sat in the driver’s seat the soft light from the street lamps showed his features and Anna saw him clearly for the first time. She was immediately struck by how handsome he was. Square jawed and blonde, young and athletic… he wasn’t what she expected him to be. He looked so normal and respectable, the kind of guy you proudly took home to your parents.